Monday, August 27, 2007

It's been an interesting few days in the Brady household. Our kids have done some pretty amazingly odd, weird, ill-advised, and leave-you-speechless-in-amazement things as of late. Let's go from oldest to youngest, shall we?

Austin: Probably the most well behaved of the three children as of late, apparently due to some weird cosmic event. He had a major meltdown Sunday over having to mow the lawn since it wasn't "his house". This was quickly countered with a "We can have you live somewhere else if you like" from his mother and a "I guess it isn't your food, or your PlayStation, or your computer either". Attitude adjusted: lawn mowed.

Marissa: Recipient of a new Giant Boulder bicycle from the LBS as I was sick of repairing the Walmart special hand me down. In an attempt to be a "big girl" she pulled Carson to church in the kid cart. On the way home, riding alongside her mother, she got goofy and started swerving. Yeah, cart tipped and somehow Carson was actually ejected and scraped up his arm pretty bad (thank goodness for helmets or I think another ER trip could have been a possiblity!). At home was the "If you want to be a big girl you must be responsible for others well-being" talk. That and the overall attitude of a nine year old going on sixteen is about more than Laura or I can take at this point. Oh sure, you laugh...but you know EXACTLY where I'm coming from, don't you!

Carson: Dad's toothbrush is for cleaning mud off Carson's shoes! Mental picture = accurate description.We've said it before and we are saying it again: I'll take the terrible two's over the whatever-you-want-to-call-it-four-year-old-attitude. He suddenly knows EVERYTHING and will argue with you relentlessly. He will push you to the absolute max on every little thing before backing down. His selective hearing is at an all time high. His ability to go to bed at 8:30 is at an all time low. By the time you actually get him to bed, you are so exhausted that you just go to bed too.

Let's throw in the milk jug for good measure -- aka, my personal pet peeve. Breakfast brings everything to the table; cereal, bowls, spoons, milk, etc. The unfortunate part of this adventure is that the milk jug NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, gets put away. It finally took a drastic measure to end the problem. Everyone is now required to put milk on the cereal before going to the table and then putting the milk right back in the fridge. This was met with resistance, but you know what??? The milk jug has stayed cold, in the fridge, where it should be, ever since.

I could go on I'm sure, but you get the picture. I'm thinking I better get back into serious training soon or there might be a trip to the liquor store in the very near future.

Closing thought: God Bless all you parents out there. It has to be the craziest job out there, one you can't quit, but one where sanity is only temporary (it helps to be crazy actually). As Red Green always closes with: Keep your stick on the ice.

I admit that although I've felt perfectly fine from the punishment that was "The Gut Check" since about last Wednesday. However, the bike and I still are not on a first name basis as of yet. Call it lazy, call it recovery time, call it a "cooling off" period, I'm not back to riding serious yet although it's time to ramp it up a bit.

I rode 30+ on Sunday at a pretty decent pace with four others into a pretty decent wind. When I got home I realized how much even that seemed to have zapped me. Am I still suffering Gut Check Hangover or was it a fluke? I guess we will find out Wednesday night as we are planning a ride with a really hard 15 mile push in the middle.

For now I'm enjoying chilling a bit, catching up on the laundry and hanging it on the clothesline (what I call my brain-dead activity) and being husband and Dad. My kids seem to like the fact I've been around more, although they have a strange way of showing it, of which will be a completely separate post.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Hard not to have a killer week when you do 435+ in 48 hours. I did take my sixth "Zero" day of the year and first since May 31st. I do have many days under 10 miles with only commuting, but only six days where my behind hasn't been on a bike.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

In the midst of all the Gut Check posts as of late, I failed to mention that a member of our family received three staples in his head. I was out for a "taper" ride for the Gut Check on a Friday night, a week before the race. Carson decided to barrel into an open screen door (on the skinny sharp side) and gash his head open. Laura called me and I was still about six miles out of town. My taper ride quickly became a dead sprint back to town to meet up with Laura and "The Grandma's" in the ER. He just got the staples out Monday. Pictures of the incident are below.

I'm here to tell you, that THESE staples are expensive. They cost about $250 each. You do the math.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Ominous beginnings foretold of what was to come. On the way to Spearfish on I90, I couldn't help but notice the big flags at various truck stops standing straight out pointing northwest. Laura told me to stop looking at them, but I couldn't help it; they taunted me like a big old tongue sticking out of a face. If they could speak, I am positive that they would have said, "This is for you and your silly bike race. Let's see what you got old man!"

We hit Spearfish and Laura's cousin Chuck's house close to dinner time. I called Mr. Bite and he and his family met us at the Bayleaf cafe in Spearfish. It was nervous anticipation that we shared as we discussed our plans for the ride the next day. How far should we go between stops? What to eat? When to eat? How much to drink? I say that it was nervous discussion, because I don't think our discussion changed any of our plans, just confirmed that we were as ready as we were going to be.

A good night of sleep, thanks in part to a cyclobenzaprine (flexoril) I took for a tight back, was greatly appreciated. I slept in until almost 9:00 mountain time. From then on it was a blur until the race started as we ate breakfast with Chuck, went to Lead, SD to see our new niece, hurried to Walmart in Spearfish for last minute supplies for the trip, and boogied to the Wyoming border for the start of the race.

At the border, I met up with fellow Vermillion riders Craig D. and Joe P., my friend Royce W. from Rapid City, along with the aforementioned Mr. Bite. I also hunted down fellow Tour de Kota friend "Spiderman" and we talked briefly but would only end up riding the first 14 miles together as he went on with a slightly faster group and we decided to let them go and regroup with our smaller entourage at Belle Fourche.

The race went off at 3:00 Mountain Time (MST) as planned and after we regrouped in Belle Fourche we headed towards Newell still into a headwind. So I don't have to repeat myself over and over in this post, there was NEVER a "W" in the wind forecast all weekend. It was either "E", "SE", or "NE". Overall about 410 miles of headwinds and about 25 miles of tailwinds when we were going south a couple times. The other side of the weather story was that between Belle Fourche and Newell was the last time we would see the sun for the rest of the weekend. I know, you think I'm kidding, but I'm not. It either was overcast, a heavy mist/fog, or it was raining. Those were the weather choices for the remainder of the weekend.

By the time we hit Newell, the weather was already looking a little grim. We heard that there was a storm coming and that it was moving real slow so we might have a shot at missing it. From Newell on, the weather was getting more and more ominous. Lightening was sharp in the distance and the front was closing in along with darkness. Into the wind, up and down the hills in that area and now the threat of rain. About three miles from Mud Butte, the light mist/light rain became a torrential downpour. We had SAG vehicles ahead and behind us. I was in the front of the pace line and I could barely see the car in front of me. We seen the lights in the distance of the rest of our vehicles and when we got there the lady in the house basically demanded that we get in the house. Even though the rain literally hurt us it was raining so hard, we were lucky. Flooding in Hermosa totally ruined houses, even knocking them off their foundation. Between Sturgis and Piedmont the interstate closed due to water/mud going across it (I heard they actually had to blade the mud off with a maintainer). The picture in the Rapid City Journal the next day was of hail that was 2-3" across. It was hard to feel lucky with what was dealt to us on the bike, but I did.

We ended up with ten people who stayed in the house that night. I had to get her address so that we could send her a thank you for her hospitality and I joked when I got it. "PO Box 2, Mud Butte, SD...is that 2 out of 3"? "Nope, it's 2 out of 4!". Everybody got a good laugh out of that one. To top it all off, her house is attached to the post office and she's the postmaster. Gotta love small town South Dakota!

Having to wait out the storm and the nasty winds that came with it left very little chance of us finishing the race. Here we are, 72 miles into a 435 mile race and we are breaking from basically 10pm to 5am without being on the bike. Royce was already nursing a sore calf, so he told me that he was just going to go back to Rapid and take it easy with the calf since he too didn't think we had a prayer of finishing. Without Royce, we soldiered on towards Faith in the morning. We arrived there at 7:59 am (thank you bank clock) only to find out that no restaurants were open. We saddled up and headed to Dupree where we had a great breakfast, but it cut into our time as they had one cook and it took a long time to get our food.

Our next goal was Ridgeview. Mr. Bite promised that it was downhill from there to the river (he drove it on the way out). I'm not sure what he was mixing with his drinks on the way out, but it was most definitely NOT all downhill as there were "rollers" all the way to the river. It wasn't bad, but we ribbed him about it relentlessly. Once we hit the river there was a decent climb on the other side before last few miles into Gettysburg. We hit Gettysburg around 7:45 and ate at thelocal steakhouse. It was there that Craig informed us that he was going to let us go, sleep for a bit, and make a decision. He was having trouble feeling various parts of his anatomy, mainly his left arm. It was also there that Snakebite and I came to the conclusion that if we were to have a prayer of finishing this that we would have to make Redfield before sleeping.

It was now 9:00pm CST and we had 80 miles to Redfield. I had an internal giggle as I changed a line from "The Blues Brothers" in my mind: "It's 80 miles to Redfield, I have two full water bottles, 8 packs of Gu, it's dark, and we have two SAG vehicles....HIT IT!". It was dark and foggy, a wonderful combination that I normally would NEVER ride in except in a race like this. About 40 miles and we hit Faulkton at Midnight. Nothing was open at all. No gas stations or anything.

Even the bar downtown was just closing up. After a brief stop and discussions on when and where to stop, on we went for Redfield. A few short miles out of Faulkton, we got our first taste of tail winds heading south and we took full advantage of them average between 20 and 25 mph the whole 15 miles. That might have been stupid on our part to waste that energy,but it sure felt great to not be hammering into the wind for a change. When the road went back East towards Redfield, the road also became horrible. As you are following the blinking lights of SAG vehicles you simply do not have the perception to know if it's a small or large crack on the road. More than a few profanities were uttered between me and Mr. Bite on that stretch of road.

We were getting so tired that we decided to break the last 15 miles into two stops. I remember thinking that I bet that even Nick and Melissa (friends who got married that day) were already in bed and us stupid idiots were still out here BIKING of all things. In the midst of the first stretch the county deputy slowly went by us giving us a REALLY weird look (after all, it was around 2:30 am). Shortly thereafter, we took our final break before going into Redfield and the deputy stopped by and talked to us. I think more to find out what in the heck we were up to than anything. After being satisfied with our answer he was on his way. We finished off our miles and pulled into Redfield at about 3:05am. After getting totally confused looking for the "other" hotel in town (Super 8 was full because of a rodeo) and getting a few too many bonus miles on the bike, we stopped in the middle of the road and threw our bikes in the van to search for the hotel, 232.50 miles from where we started at 5am the previous morning. OF COURSE somebody would have to drive by at that time in a huff and shout a few obscenities our way. That was partially Laura's fault for yelling at them to "chill out" as they went by. Not always a wise move with people who are up at 3:00 and probably drunk. We finally found the motel which looked like "MAYBE" one person was staying at. Snakebite tried the doorbell repeatedly on the office door and knocked a couple more to no avail. I surmised that they probably thought "Great...drunks at 3:15 am...NO THANKS" and didn't bother to answer. I told Laura to call Craig and Liz and see if Craig would be interested in helping SAG if he was indeed finished. They agreed to be there by 5:30 in an INCREDIBLE show of friendship and camaraderie which will not soon be forgotten. It was now 3:30 and I had two hours before my alarm was due to go off.

5:30 am the aforementioned alarm on my cell phone went off. I shut it off and literally stared at my phone stupefied trying to comprehend ANYTHING that was going on. Within seconds it went off again, but this time it was Craig letting me know that he was in Redfield and needed to know where we were. I woke up Mr. Bite and we got ready to go. I felt bad as I hoped to meet up with a good friend from my college days but I didn't think he'd appreciate a call at 3:00am, or 5:30am for that matter. The very SECOND I pulled the bikes out of our van, it started raining. It was becoming so typical that it didn't even phase us. The first 15 miles leaving Redfield were by far the most painful of the whole journey for me. Everything was tight, I had a heck of a headache which I had already popped a 600mg ibuprofen (thank you VA!) but there was no relief. When we stopped at our first scheduled stop (now on the "bonus miles detour"), I could tell by looking at Craig's face that he was worried about both of us. We sucked it up and rode another 15 miles where Craig offered me one of his "Amp" sports drinks. I accepted, ate a little and got back on the bike. Within very few pedal strokes I realized my headache was completely gone. My legs were slowly coming back to me and life was looking up! Then we got to turn south for our last ten miles of a "somewhat" tailwind which we ran consistently over 20mph with to Doland.

We took a longer break there than we probably should have before we headed out towards Clark. A few of the locals struck up conversations with us including one younger man who came up and asked if we are in that "insane race across the state". Once that was confirmed he shook our hands like he just found new heroes. We had decided to split the mileage between Doland and Clark in half and we met up with Laura at a roadside part about seven miles from Clark. Laura was also fragged from all the driving, so having Craig and Liz onboard allowed her to go ahead and get a couple more hours of sleep. It was there we got some bad news from Craig and Liz. I miscalculated what we would have to average to finish. I had it in my head we had until 5:00 when in reality it was 4:00. Suddenly we had to average about 14mph WITHOUT getting off the bike to finish within the 48 hours. New added stress as Mr. Bite and I left the rest area. I decided to try for 15.5-16.5 mph and keep Mr. Bite on my wheel. It was comfortable for me and then he could take over when I needed a quick blow here and there. It wasn't to be. I had to back down a couple times and the third time I dropped him real bad in a short time. I slowed down briefly and looked back only to see Mr. Bite's head hanging low. I felt a horrible turmoil as I had to decide to either stay with my friend who I have already ridden 370 miles with or try to finish within the time limits. I pulled up next to Craig and Liz and told them to stay with him until he caught up with his SAG and catch me wherever they could. I left my buddy on the field of battle and it still bothers me looking back.

I was alone...solo...for the first time in this race. I decided that now was the time to lay it ALL on the line and just hammer away and hope for the best. The wind was getting stronger, but I had to see what I could do. Amazingly I had quite a bit left in the tank. I was able to hold 20-22 mph for quite awhile. Then a really weird feeling started setting in. The best I could describe was a feeling of vertigo. While riding comfortable it was fine, when hammering with basically all I had left in me, I was almost getting sick to my stomach. I took turns hammering and backing off and was still keeping an average speed around 20mph. Now, everything was hurting. Seeing the "Watertown - 5 Miles" sign was a great confidence booster but it came at a price...HILLS. It was a pretty good climb towards Watertown at a time I needed it least. It was about that time that the Snakebite SAG went by honking and waving. My friend was done. More motivation to finish what we all started. I had to do this for all of us, not just me. Craig and Liz were following me to see me finish, not to see me quit now.

We got into Watertown and amazingly hit most lights green. The two red lights I hit did not cause me to unclip which was wonderful, because I'm not sure I could have if I wanted to. At the one light I yelled at Laura who was ahead of me to hit Starbucks on the edge of town for a break. She gave me a thumbs up. As I seen her turn at the light and I didn't even consider going around corner to connect to the road to Starbucks. I unclipped, and walked my bike down the ditch instead. After getting my Venti, skinny, no-whip, three shot, white mocha, amazingly Mr. Bite pulled in with his bikes in his truck. A very brief discussion ensued as I had to get back on the road. He told me to finish strong, which I had every intetion of doing.

Onward to Goodwin, SD where I was told it was all downhill to the border (about 20 miles). Amazingly, and VERY lucky for me, it was. I was really starting to pain now. The fog outside of Watertown was as thick as soup and I was completely out of it mentally at this point. We had already decided to cut the last 32 to the border in two so we stopped at about 16 miles to "refuel" my body. Craig served up his last Amp to me and when I checked the time left I realized that we had plenty of time to make the border. I also decided I was hurting bad enough that we should break the last 16 in half as well. However, when I got to the point where we were about to break, the downhill was enough to convince me that a stop my hurt more than it would help so I waved for Laura to continue on. I stared doing a raised countdown with my hands to Craig and Liz following behind as I seen mile marker 407 (5 to go), 408 (4), 409 (3), 410 (2), 411 (1). When mile marker 412 was in site, I pumped my fist in the air doing my best Lance Armstrong imitation and Craig honked the horn over and over behind me.

47:15 minutes. :45 minutes ahead of the 48 hour cutoff. I was numb. Numb that I made it. Numb because I hurt. Numb because I had to leave a friend behind when I really didn't want to. Numb because I have such an awesome wife to follow me across the state on such a journey. Numb because I have such awesome friends that they would follow me for the last 140 miles even though their race was over. Amazed that out of the 17 solo riders to start, I was only the third, and last to finish this epic race. It was an incredible feeling that I know I will never forget. Will I do it again? Probably. Next year? Probably not. I would rather have fun with a leap frog team next year and let them experience a little bit of the excitement.

Monday, August 20, 2007

For the tons of emails received already, I DID finish the Gut Check, barely. 47:15 minutes and every last bit of energy I had left in me. I actually pounded harder in the last 50 than I did the rest of the way. Thank goodness for that super long downhill from around Goodwin to the Minnesota border!

Longer blog post will ensue with all the gory details....and yes, I did ride my bike to work this morning.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Do I really know what to pack? Not really, so I'm packing everything. Much like Snakebite's list, if anybody has great ideas for a ride/race like this, PLEASE feel free to comment.

In the spirit of not wanting to try anything drastically new, but wanting to survive this endeavor, has anybody tried Sports Slick or anything of that nature? If so, please feel free to share your experiences with it.

Friday, August 10, 2007

I found what I conceived to be a cool idea for my blog from somebody else's blog: Snapshots. When you roll over a link or a picture it makes it larger or gives you a snapshot of what the page or picture looks like.

My friend Barry S. from the "BIG CITY" of Minneapolis, looks down on us "SMALL TOWN" folk and our silly little ways. So, in all fairness to Barry, I will let the masses speak in the form of a poll.

Polling will be open until Monday morning, Aug. 20. Those who feel the need to vote more than once really need to get a life, but I can't stop you. SO, without further ado, I give you THE POLL:

Thursday, August 09, 2007

The MS Bike Tour is always one of the events I look forward to the most each year. They do such a great job of preparing everything and it shows! This year the ride went from Sioux Falls to Brookings. They changed the route from the way they used to go to Brookings to allow some of the less experienced riders (and those who felt the need to cheat...yeah...some of you read my blog...I dare you to leave a comment too!) to ride somewhere just over 50 miles. It's always better to have more riders than those who wouldn't be able to do 150 in two days though.

Saturday we had a pretty decent four man breakaway going early. The man, the myth, the Legend: Snakebite honored us with his presence along with Travis K. and Mark P. rounding out our foursome. Early on we passed the MS SAG and came up behind the "rent-a-cop" security guy. Snakebite decided to pass and I followed which got us a good scolding of "DON'T BREAKOUT UNTIL (a certain) ROAD!!!". Well, here's a thought...YOU are in a vehicle and we are on bikes...do you THINK you can stay ahead of us? Other than a few moments of "testosterone challenge" where the pace neared 30mph, we were around the 20-24mph range all day. It was a nice hammer-fest other than Travis blowing out a front AND a back tire. The latter proved fatal as his bike tire was showing cords. This prompted a SAG ride to Brookings for replacements. He would later blow a tube in one of his NEW tires. He was a smidge upset, but nothing a few drinks at Cubbies in downtown Brookings wouldn't take care of.

Sunday I took it easy. JUST KIDDING! But, I really was going to. I was riding along with Craig D. around 19-20 mph when "they" caught up. The same three as mentioned on Saturday and a member of Team FoMo (not be mistaken for team MoFo). The hammer-fest was back on and after about 30 miles we dropped the FoMo guy (not even sure where, he was just GONE all of a sudden) and Snakebite peeled off at a rest stop. We caught another member of Team Road Kill who had taken a wrong turn and missed 10 miles. He rode with us to the lunch stop and then went back 5 miles so he could make up the 10 he lost. After the extra 25 mile loop we were back on with the 50 mile people. We were not nice at all either. We didn't just go by most of them, we BLEW by most at about 25mph. There is something extra fun about having 25 more miles than those ahead of you and dusting them. By the end of the ride, Cindy L. thought that only 3 of the 50 milers beat us in (including her). We averaged 22.0 mph on Sunday due in large part to all the little "carrots" dangling in front of us in the form of 50 mile riders.

Our team went from 26 last year to (when the final count comes in) I believe 45. It was awesome to have such a big team. We have three currently registered for WRATH MS Tour (Weekend Ride Around The (Black) Hills) and I know two more planning on going so that will raise more funds as well. Last year we raised $14,108 as a team and going into the weekend our team was already at $12,755.50. We are wainting for all the money turned in the day of the ride to be counted. Between that and the WRATH Tour money, I'm guessing that we should be close to at least $17K if not more! I would LOVE to see us raise $20K, but I'll wait to see the final figures.

It was a great ride and for a great cause. Consider joining us for WRATH this year or the MS Bike Tour in Sioux Falls next year. Set the goal NOW and you can do it!

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Okay, so it's only .91 miles to my bike rack at work if I cut across the park, but it's still an accomplishment. Also, since I've kept track of this, if this stat was "haven't driven" to work, I have no idea how long the streak would actually be. I caught a ride to work due to a slushy snowstorm in March. I was going to ride that day as well, but Cindy L. called me and asked me if I wanted a ride and I accepted. Without that ride, I would be in the neighborhood of 180 days since I've been keeping track. At any rate, I'm still proud of my streak...and it's my blog...and I wanted to write about it...so there!

Sort of wore out the Elk Point route this week, but the wind was out of the SE most of the week and it was HOT so I chose to go in the directions with stops every 10-15 miles. To see the routes from my Garmin click HERE:

I'm an avid cyclist who uses the bicycle as much for everyday activities such as commuting to work, going to the store, as I do for pleasure. The less I pay in gas, the better I feel both mentally and physically.